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Public comment for Mt. Blue budget is Tuesday

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FARMINGTON – Members of the public who wish to weigh in on the Mt. Blue Regional School District’s proposed 2015-16 budget will have the floor at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at the Mt. Blue Campus forum on Tuesday, April 28. The public comment period will lead off the meeting, followed by the regular business of the school board.

The board has been reviewing a draft budget of $32.3 million, a 3.9 percent increase from the current fiscal year, although that number is largely meaningless until the board begins making additions and cuts. The budget was developed through the utilization of lists of high priority needs and recommended reductions, which were presented to the school board by a committee comprised of school board directors and administrators.

The current fiscal year’s budget stands at $31,040,616, approved by voters at the 2014 district-wide budget meeting. That represented a 4.3 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, 2013-14.

The proposed budget takes into account the anticipated stabilization of State General Purpose Aid, after a $400,000 drop in the previous year. However, as currently put forward in Governor Paul LePage’s budget proposal, the educational mill rate would increase from 8.1 to 8.47. That means each of MBRSD’s 10 towns would need to raise more money locally to receive their state allocation.

New expenditures would include two more special education teachers at Mt. Blue Middle School, at $60,000 apiece, and an additional, regular classroom teacher at Cascade Brook School that would replace an ed tech III for $30,000. The budget committee is also recommending additional guidance support at Cape Cod Hill School, costing $11,700, and extra secretarial hours at MBMS and CBS, costing $9,292 for 4 hours a day.

The budget also proposes bring in two to four portable classrooms to MBMS for the next year or two. Specifically, Ward said, the school needs space for special education programs, due to larger numbers of participants than anticipated. Portable classrooms would cost $3,000 monthly to lease, plus some up-front money to add various utilities: electrical, fire alarms, internet and telephones.

In the long term, Ward said, central office facilities in MBMS probably needed to move to a new home in order to make space for special education. Ward said he envisioned using existing school property and possibly the Foster Technology Center’s Building Trades program to create office space. One or 2 years of portable classrooms would provide the district with the time to develop and implement a plan, Ward said.

The budget also includes funds to give the 6th grade laptops, as those students are now at the middle school with 7th and 8th graders. A $24,570 lease-purchase program over a 4 year period would buy laptops for the 6th grade, which currently use cart-mounted machines that are wheeled from class to class. Those computers would replace older models at the lower grades; an update that Ward noted was necessary due to the prevalence of computer-based standardized testing.

Another laptop-related, $72,500 increase would pay for district-provided insurance for the computers. That would allow all students greater freedom in bringing the laptops home, Ward said.

Other expenses include replacing aging heating units in CBS for $64,000, adding pre-K seats to buses for $10,000, paying for off-site server hosting at $18,000, and $2,700 to replace computers in the central office.

The budget committee cut a number of other needs identified as high priority, ranging from administrative positions to a pre-engineering/computer-aided design and drafting course, to moving toward half-day pre-K programs at W.G. Mallett School and Cushing School. Those are currently full-day programs that run two days a week, and half-day sessions are generally considered to be better for pre-K students.

The board has scheduled meetings for May 5 and May 7 to continue budget deliberations. The administration has been aiming for a June 1 district-wide meeting to set the budget, although the board will set the date of the meeting. A confirmation referendum would follow, with voters asked if they approve of the action taken at the budget meeting.

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5 Comments

  1. RSU 9 residents – Please come out and share your comments and concerns on the proposed budget for 2015-16. You can review a copy of the proposed budget at the Central Office Monday thru Friday, 8am-4pm.

  2. My public comment is that I support a 3.9 % DECREASE in the budget. Most folks who actually add money to the tax base did not have any increase in their wages during the past year. Remember now people,,,,,,those that teach, work for the state, or towns do not add any money to the tax base. That burden is funded by everyone else… We have had enough of this incrementalism. Our taxes are going through the roof…..Let’s draw a line in the sand and say no

  3. This proposed budget is up 3.9. Last years budget was up 4.3% How can the school board justify these increases when all of us in the private sector are lucky to get a 1.5% raise. The same goes for social security increases which have been in the neighborhood of 1.5%. I will support nothing above a 2% increase, and that is being generous.

  4. I strongly oppose any increase in the school budget. Retired, fixed income, no children, and I live well outside the town limits. My property tax has increased 22% in just the past two years. Just what exactly, am I getting for tax my dollars?
    What is the actual increase of student enrollment that justifies the continued spending?

  5. Quoting Lynn: “Just what exactly, am I getting for tax my dollars?”
    How about a trained work force that will continue to send your
    social security check to you each month
    and take care of you when you are in a nursing facility,
    and fix your broken car and your broken bones, etc., etc., etc…..

    BTW-
    Who built the car you drive? You did?
    Probably not but rather engineers and a trained work force on the line using materials, technology
    and equipment that we don’t understand- but they do! Education.
    Do you know how to make the gas or electric battery that powers your car?
    Probably not, but somebody who studied chemistry does.
    Education.

    Has a doctor ever prescribe medications for you?
    Which scientist/researcher developed the drug?
    Where did that doctor go to medical school?
    More Education.

    Do you have pets or farm animals?
    Where do you take them when they are sick or injured- a veterinarian?
    Hmmm, you are right, more Education.

    Look around your home- did you make your stove? refrigerator? paint on your walls?
    Did you build your house? Did you develop the blueprints?
    Wiring, plumbing, mixing concrete?
    Did you know enough geometry so the house stayed up
    and didn’t come tumbling down around you?
    Education.

    Obviously you use a computer. Did you build it and develop the software for it?
    Do you use a cell phone? Did you develop the smart technology that allows for communication to instantaneously reach every corner of the globe?
    Education.

    Who keeps you safe locally and globally?
    Well trained (educated) public servants and a well trained (educated) military.
    Sorry….more education and more tax dollars…..

    Lynn, who provided the education that was made available to you many years ago?
    The taxes of generations that came before. Time to pay it forward.

    Benjamin Franklin said there were only two things in life that
    are certain, death and taxes. Like it or not, old Ben is still right.

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